Inside This Painting Is Something More
by iDoodleAzu
Summary: There was a new painting in Marukawa Shoten. Onodera Ritsu was late. Takano tried calling him, but there was no response received. Where could he be? Takano learned that the painting was not just an ordinary painting. Warnings inside, please R&R!
1. Prologue

**Title: _Inside This Painting Is Something More_**

 **Fandom: _Sekaiichi Hatsukoi * Ib (settings/game)_**

 **Summary: _There was a new painting in Marukawa Shoten. Onodera Ritsu was late. Takano tried calling him, but there was no response received. Where could he be? Takano learned that the painting was not just an ordinary painting._**

 **Warnings: _||SLOW PLOT || Minor Injuries, Blood(Minor), Angst_**

 **Disclaimer: _Sekaiichi Hatsukoi belongs to Nakamura Shungiku and Ib game made by Kouri._**

 **Notes:** AAAAAAh. This is my first time writing a sekakoi AND a Nostalgia fic xD. No smut, i'm too innocent to write lmao. This fic is LITERALLY not planned, so please bear with me? Also my grammar is HELL AND BAD PLEASE BEAR WITH IT. Lmao, without furder ado, I HOPE YOU'LL ENJOY THIS ;w; *Italics are thoughts, almost*

* * *

 **PROLOGUE**

Yesterday, there was a new painting that was hanging on the wall just beside the corner of the elevator and in front of the Emerald Section of Marukawa Shoten. Ryuuichiro Isaka _that old man_ had ordered it so that the department looks lively and artsy. Few people would stop by and take a second glance to it and up they go to their work. But Takano didn't bother to scrutinize and look at the painting. What's the point in having that painting around? It's making the department look tight and small in Takano's perspective. And that painting was vast and unusually huge. Besides that, it's going to the junk for the next few years anyway. Things rot and nothing lasts forever.

Onodera Ritsu was late. Well, very late. It's already ten in the morning, work hours began since nine. _One hour had already passed_. When Takano knocked at Ritsu's door apartment when he was about to leave, there was no response received. Not a sound or grunt, not even a _thump_ from a fallen object. He had tried calling him but he would never respond (of course Ritsu would never respond to a persistent guy like Takano, no doubt about it). What surprised Takano more was that he can't hear a ringtone on the other side. But that only concludes that he was already at work. But Ritsu was still not here. _Where could he be?_

He distracted himself in editing the storyboard of the manga his author gave. As he finished in just several minutes, he tried to distract himself again in checking the editors on how are they handling the manuscripts of their authors. Some would say " _It's fine_ " and some say " _Editing it right now_ " or something along those lines. When he's still trying to distract himself, uneasiness started to rise in his stomach. _Where's Ritsu? Is he in danger?_ Millions of question surrounded Takano's mind concerning the young brunet but those questions were never answered. The unsettling feeling increased and he was beginning to slightly panic.

He asked Kisa, one of the editors in this section and a close friend of Ritsu, "Kisa."

The baby-faced man looked up from his work, "Yes?"

"Do you know where Onodera is? He's very late, and still hasn't come here."

"Ricchan's already here Takano-san, said he got here earlier before the work hours even began. He already finished the manuscripts he was said he's having a coffee break." He turned back to edit his manga.

Oh... _Oh_. He was getting worried about nothing again. He forgot how Ritsu would be so hard-working. He really worked out things early, and he took his time in learning this new particular field he didn't have experience on. That's why Takano really love him. But, really, he need to talk about this with Ritsu. He didn't even bothered writing him a note or sending him a text that he was early at work. It was making him worried sick. (But then again, that brunet would never do that, Takano knew that Ritsu still is confused with his own feelings.)

"Ah, but Takano-san." Kisa interrupted.

"Hm?"

"He... he usually have short breaks, but I didn't expect him to have this long..." He trailed off and avoided eye contact to his boss.

 _Huh? What?_ "What do you mean?" Kisa scratched his nape sheepishly. But he continued, "But, maybe, maybe he's just taking his time... No one knows." he shrugged. "Well, you can see it in his eyes though. His eye bags are very visible. You can tell he's exhausted. So I think he's resting a bit...?"

...How could he be so blind? _Of course_. Ritsu does not only put efforts on his work, but he also subconsciously pushing himself to his limits. "...I see. Thank you. I'll go get him."

Kisa returned to his work, while Takano... The unsettling feeling came back to his stomach again and it was rising very fast. _What if something happened to Ritsu?_ The negativity of him came back, and the raven haired man huffed a curse under his breath. He cleared his clouded and troubled mind and arranged himself and stood up. As he exited the section, a dark aura welcomed him. Takano thought it was just him being a paranoid, so he tried to brush that eerie feeling off. As he walked pass by to the painting, his golden brown eyes subconsciously looked to the wide painting. The details are complex and very complicating, and a watermark was written. _Weiss Guertena_.

So that's the person's name who made this unique but strange masterpiece. Takano could tell he was definitely not Japanese. As Takano scanned and examined the painting more, his eyes ended up reading the painting's plaque.

 _Fabricated World._

As he finished read that, Takano's vision started to blur. And then slowly went into black. His blood turned cold. His head pounded like it was hit and slammed with a hammer, and he is starting to lose his consciousness. A voice whispered to his head. It was faint. But it was still audible. Not knowing where it came from the darkness, but he knew it was from a little girl, laced with concern, worry, and plea.

"Please save him..."

And Takano blacked out.


	2. Chapter 1

Notes: Wew. Here's chapter 1! The Game begins :D (i am a sadist im sorry)

* * *

"He needs you..."

Two golden brown eyes slowly opened. It was blurry. The vision was still blurry. As Takano turned his head upwards, his eyes closed shut as he winced from the bright light directed at him. "Where-?" He slowly stood up, groaning at the sore pain at his back. _How did I end up here?_ His vision is still blurry after waking up, and he realized he wasn't wearing his glasses. Luckily, his black eyeglasses are just inches away from him, not broken, and unscratched. He picked it up and wiped the lenses with the hem of his black shirt and wore it back to his face. Takano massaged his back as he stood up, trying to soothe the pain.

In front of him was an amber colored rose on a gray vase on a table. He picked the rose from the vase and it's petals glowed softly. A new wave of energy ran through Takano's veins, and it feels like he and the rose are connected to each other. Or was it just the man's imagination? When he turned to his right side, there's a note hanging that said:

"You and your rose are unified. If the rose wilts, then you too will rot away."

He looked back to his rose. He counted the petals and they were eight of them. So, if the rose lose all of it's petals, then Takano will die too? He made a face and sighed. He tucked the rose safely on the pocket of his jacket, letting the petals hung loosely. When he turned around, he froze.

A painting of a woman wearing a gold dress was in front of him on the floor, and leaning on the wall. Her arms are out of the canvas, and her elbows are resting on the lady stared at Takano with a mysterious smile. Takano blinked once. Twice. Then thrice. Nothing happened. When he was about to release the breath he was holding, the painting spoke.

"Hey, sweetie, you have a lovely flower..." The painting just spoke to Takano. He was only probably hearing things or did the painting just came into life. His eye twitched at how the lady talked to him, like she's thirsty. And Takano hates it. He only has one love of his life and that is Onodera Ritsu.

Before anything may happen the painting screamed and crawled and chased towards Takano.

* * *

Ritsu heard screaming of women, a liquid squirting out, and a canvas being tore off.

He already got the third number which was a purple 4 to unlock the door on the other side of the area. The other numbers were a red 9 on the white canvas he saw earlier, and a green 18 on the hanging doll's clothes. When he came out and turned to see the paintings of women in different colored dresses, he gasped in horror and fear. All of the women have knives on their one hand and pointing to the brown lady with wet red paint(blood? Ritsu did not dare to touch it) smearing their frames and dripping on the floor.

The painting of the woman in a brown dress was worst. Her canvas was ripped, red liquid covered her whole body. And all of the plaques of the others screamed " _LIAR!_ " to her. Sweat dripped, and Ritsu shakily took a step to the painting covered in red. "Thank you, and I'm sorry..." he ran to the door and exited the Liar's Room, in which he can already hear a muffled scream of " _LIAR!_ ". He released a shaky breath and continued to unlock the door.

When he typed in the correct answer, which Ritsu had trouble calculating on his head alone, the door clicked and Ritsu hoped it was an exit from this gallery. When he turned the knob, his hope dissolved and saw instead several tree sculptures. The brunet flailed his arms, "When I thought this was a way home back to real world..." he grimaced. He would rather work himself to death than be killed on this messed up gallery with paintings that came to life. _I mean, paintings don't come to life, right?_ He let out a defeated groan. One tree sculpture had an apple in it. When Ritsu picked it off from the tree, the apple's texture is very hard, and woody. When he looked to the painting, it was the same image to he sculpture. When he exited the room, he let himself wander out loud.

"Why do I have an apple now?" When he started walking back, a doll fell from the ceiling that made Ritsu screamed. His face was flustered and covered in sweat due to panic and embarrassment. He didn't screamed from where he first woke up in an area of this cursed gallery all the way through here. He did not. At all. How many times have he screamed? 19? 20?

Plus one, because as he went pass to the hallway which has one arm already reaching out, another decided to pop up and Ritsu had to conquer this. He ended up walking to the direction of the Lips. And she spoke once again.

"Hungry... give food..." Ritsu was still suprise because the voice is a woman on her 50s. And it was horribly hoarse, making it creepy like it was being choked.

"That food... Give to me..." she said.

"Uh.. this?" He hesitantly placed the wooden apple to her mouth and she hungrily it them with a big munch. Ritsu swiftly jerked his hand back again because he nearly got bitten by the Lips on his hand. He did read the note of being aware of the Lips. He just thought it's stupid because it's just a lip and thought that it's just painted on the wall.

Or maybe he's the stupid one.

"Tasty..." She licked her lips with he tongue and Ritsu's eye twitched at disgust.

"I let you pass now..." Ritsu tilted his head in confusion with a small " _Huh?_ "

"Go through my mouth..." and she opened it wide, taller than Ritsu's height. "Wh-what?!" Ritsu shrieked in pure shock, confusion and fear. He wanted to decline the kind(really?) offer, but he knew, even if he tried going back to where he started, there's no door back to the real world. No staircase, no hidden rooms, no exit. He had 7 petals left on his glowing green rose. He already had enough and went through this far. An _ant_ spoke to him. _Arms_ popped up everywhere from the _walls_. A headless statue tried to chase him. A _stick man_ forced him to play hide and seek with him causing Ritsu to lose 2 petals. And a painting that's wiggling it's tongue _spit_ on him (and lost 1 petal again). He didn't want this nightmare. He just wanted to go home.

But if he did give up now, then that means he'll be stuck in this cursed gallery forever. And he didn't like that. Ritsu had no choice but to continue.

He just wished someone was here too. He definitely didn't want to be all alone in this miserable place.

Not that he would admit that out loud, of course.

* * *

 _The two of them were thrown in this labyrinth for a reason._


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N: _ **I** got a writer's block and it was so damn frustrating! Like I said, this fanfic was unplanned, the crossover just popped in my head and my hands slipped xD. I'm so sorry for the delay but here's chap 2! *some italics are thoughts* _**

* * *

A sickening zombie-like screech pierced Takano's ears as he dodged the painting's attempt in snatching his rose.

"Could it be more worse than this?!" Takano yelled out to nobody as he still tried to sink into his mind that this painting, Lady in Yellow, as the man read on her plaque, had just come to alive. When the painting grab his right leg, his pants got tattered and a long scratch was marked on Takano's skin by the lady's long and sharp yellow nail. The black haired man hissed lowly in pain as he avoided the wild painting. He ran towards a red door he saw. He opened it as fast as he can, and immediately closed it.

Unfortunately, the door was not closed completely. The painting hissed loudly, maybe in pain (do paintings feel pain?). The lady's arm was blocking it to close the door, and she attempted to opened it again as her arm wiggled and struggled to be set free. Takano put his force in pulling the doorknob close to him, mentally wishing that her arm would tear off.

"Tsk! Go back to where you belong! You arse!" Takano kicked the arm with his foot, avoiding the hand of the lady that might pull him inside and scratch him to death again.

The arm abruptly pulled back, but her hand was on the door now, and was pulling it to herself with great force also. Takano and the Lady In Yellow are like playing tug-of-war, instead they were doing it using the door.

"Tsk." Takano gritted his teeth. And with anger, he exerted force in pulling the doorknob close to him, and shouted. "You arsehole better release this damn door, or else I'll burn you to death!"

And with that, the painting's hand quickly released the door and Takano, who was holding the doorknob with great effort, stumbled to the floor as the red door closed with a deafening _slam!_

Takano looked at his glowing amber rose. He counted the petals and ended up having seven petals left. _I must've lost one when that damn thing scratched me_ , he thought. He looked to his scar, good thing it wasn't too deep, and it's not bleeding either, if it is, then he would lose two petals or three. _And look what she did to my pants! This was my favorite pants anyway_ , he frowned for a second then groaned loudly. He could still walk properly though.

As he was about to leave, the door banged several times before it went quiet again. He gave a final bored glance before he walked away and let his feet wander in the hallway.

"Seriously, where am I?" Takano stretched his arms as he exhaustively said that. He stopped as he pass by another grey vase on a table. He looked inside of it and saw water. Takano wasn't thirsty, to be honest, he looked to his amber rose. Seeing as the rose wouldn't survive without water, he put his rose on the vase.

Rapidly, Takano's rose had an additional 3 petals. And Takano was feeling the new wave of energy even stronger now. He counted the petals and there was now ten of them now. As he looked to the vase again, the water was gone.

"Huh," Takano said, a tad bit confused. He picked his rose from the now empty vase and put it back into the pocket of his jacket.

He already had taken note on his head that he is linked to his rose, a painting had come alive and tried to kill him, and now a vase with water healed his rose, and his own self too. (Only the scar, his pants weren't).

But that wasn't the point. He is not in his work. The place is all too unfamiliar. He's not in Marukawa Shoten, not in his office. Now that he mentioned that, he remembered Onodera. _Ritsu._ Sure, Kisa said he was having a break, but Takano can't help but feel worried about the twenty-five year old brunet.

 _And what time was it now?_ Takano thought. He should have thought or at least checked about it a while ago. However, as he looked to his wristwatch, the glass was broken. The hands of the clock were not moving. It was stuck. Frozen.

"The heck?" Takano cursed. _How was I supposed to know what time is it now?_ He's not the one to usually check the time all the time, except for punctualities, that is.

He tried checking his phone too. Instead, it had a big crack on the screen also. The man clicked his tongue. _Don't tell me this one's broken too, and how the hell did it crack?_ Takano pushed the power button on. After a few seconds, his phone lit up in a plain and too bright white light. After a few seconds again, his phone vibrated and went back to black. Takano winced. He had thought of sending a help message to the co-workers that he _was trapped in a gallery, God knows why._ And a, " _Send me a message if Ritsu's there_ ".

 _Or is it still nighttime and I am still dreaming?_ Takano pinched himself at his arm. Then to his cheek. "Huh." Takano stared at his arm, "Guess I'm not dreaming then." He let out a loud sigh, and continued walking in the hallway.

The white walls of the hallway made Takano feel at ease for a bit. The hallway was empty, only one narrow path was there and Takano followed and turned when needed to. When he finally came into a large area of the hallway, a rather eye-catching sculpture was displayed on the middle. He stopped, and walked closer to the sculpture. A large crimson rose with a spiraling stem, bloomed and delicate.

 _Embodiment of Spirit_

Takano thought it was related to where he and his rose are one. But other than that, he didn't know the meaning deeper. He shrugged the thought off and continued to walk to where the path continued.

He stopped as an another red door was right in front of him. He twisted the doorknob. It was unlocked. _Come to think of it, has someone already been here?_ He pushed the door inside and entered to a new room. He closed the door while examining the room.

"Where in the world am I then?" Takano hoped it was an exit. But it is very obvious to the walls and sculptures being displayed, that this was not an exit from the gallery.

The walls were gray and gloomy. In front of him were two black hands standing on the ebony floor, their black fingers were dangling. In front of him were also two paintings, a groom and a bride, grieving, (which is weird, _shouldn't be newly wed couples be happy?_ ) pinned on the two walls that was separated by a narrow path lead its way to God knows where.

Takano walked with slow pace as he observed the hands. As he came to read the painting's name, it's actually the grieving bride's hands. He passed by and followed the path and met another vast space filled with doors and rooms and little paintings at the end of the room.

The man went to the first gray door nearest to him and entered the room. The walls were still gray, and there was a sign in front of him and his amber eyes went to read it. _Labryinth_.

"Cool." He rolled his eyes with a sarcastic voice. He heard footsteps. When they were becoming louder, he turned his head to where it came from and saw a black headless statue dressed in crimson red and a matching high heels standing at the far left of Takano. Takano did nothing and waited to see what will happen. After several moments, the statue decided to move towards the man with an accurate speed.

Takano waited until the statue was just a foot away from him and immediately went out of the room and closed the door shut.

"First the lady, then that? I must be living a charmed life." He muttered. He was tense back there to be honset, but he remained calm. He let out a groan and then a yawn.

He'll figure out a way out of this hell.

* * *

Ritsu entered the mouth, hoping that the Lips doesn't have a saliva and doesn't stink, and he hoped it will be the way to the exit.

Ritsu was then instead in a poorly lit room, with gray walls and a bunch of green leaves a foot away from him. (Ritsu have to step aside to see what's inside in this room.) When he turned to his back, there's a plain gray wall. And no sign of the Lips' tongue or teeth were there.

 _Looks like she closed it already_ , he thought, clutching his bright green rose. He sighed in relief, _Good thing she didn't eat me_. Ritsu closed his evergreen eyes and opened it again, exhaling a deep breath.

He walked to see the front of the sculptures. His green eyes scanned them, a tree that resembles a human, a colorful skeleton splattered with blue, yellow, red and green, a frowning head statue, and a deformed wine glass sculpture. Strange things made Ritsu curious to examine them. But a part of him wanted to ignore and get the hell out instead.

Ritsu went with the second part of him then. He walked pass to the paintings and in front of the wine glass was a gray door. _Thank the heavens_.

He twisted the knob and pulled the door in. But when the door had already been opened, he was met by a another concrete gray wall.

"Agh, damnit! I shouldn't have trusted that her!" Ritsu scowled and scratched his head so hard that maybe his hair will fall out any moment now.

He closed the door, and opened it again after several seconds. And closed, and opened it. He did this at least seven times now. He ran back to the part of the wall where he came from, pounded it, and saying, "Hey! Open your mouth! Please!"

Silence.

"Great, I'm trapped." Ritsu's shoulders slumped and his expression turned into an angry pout. "What am I suppose to do now?" He grumbled and stomped around in circles. He flailed his arms and let out an exasperated loud sigh. He let his mind wander out to conclusions. _If there's no other way out, then that means…_

"I'm going to be stuck here forever?!"

* * *

 **A/N: _OHOHOH. WHAT WILL THEY DO NEXT? Till next time xD_**


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